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The following guest post is by Lisa Bodell, CEO of futurethink, a New York City-based innovation research and training firm.

When people ask if complacency can really harm a company, I ask them if they’ve heard the one about the five trained monkeys and the banana?

A scientist placed five monkeys in a cage with a banana at the top. The monkeys clambered over each other to reach the banana but when one of them did, the scientist sprayed him with cold water.

The top monkey got soaked, along with all the others. Which translated into five unhappy monkeys. Over and over, whenever one of them went for the banana, all of them got wet. Soon, the group started fighting anyone who went after the prize.

At this point, the scientist replaced one of the original monkeys with a new monkey. Since the newcomer knew nothing about the cold water, he instinctively climbed for the banana—and was promptly tackled by the others.

One by one, the scientist replaced the trained monkeys with new monkeys, who were taught by the group that the banana was off-limits. After five days, no original monkeys remained in the cage. Yet every day, they were determined to fight any monkey who dared to reach for the banana. But none of them, of course, knew why.

This illustration about the effects of conformity came directly from a manager at a large manufacturing company, which had a complacency problem. In talking to his teams, I observed that they no longer questioned anything—no matter how shortsighted or inefficient—because management had been historically unreceptive to input or inquiry. The pervasive attitude was “just keep your head down and do as you’re told.”

Your own employees are no doubt operating in a similar state of frustration. All those management protocols and policies meant to keep things running smoothly are actually doing the opposite. Your stupid rules—like travel policies and unnecessary reports—are decreasing productivity and overall morale.

Getting rid of even one stupid rule can actually send transformative ripples through an organization. When I worked with McGraw-Hill Companies, I asked four different HR groups to write down the company rule they would most like to kill. Then they placed it on a whiteboard according to whether it was easy/hard to kill and would have a high impact on the business.

From the teams’ mass of sticky notes, one rule emerged as the most-hated: the Monthly Operating Report. According to staff, the report was a time-suck for 300 people. No one was sure who created it or whether the C-Suite even read it.

After the VP heard his employees’ impassioned appeal, he stood up and, in one of those slow-motion cinematic moments, announced that he’d be killing the report for six months. If no one missed it, it would be eliminated. (It’s long gone.)

When I introduced Sprint to Kill a Stupid Rule a few years ago, restrictions about passwords and discretionary credits were eradicated on the spot. Since then, the practice of rule-killing at Sprint has become so integral that one group recently held a “Kill a Stupid Meeting” session: after auditing all their meetings, they eliminated 30% of them.

At Time Warner-HBO, meetings were also a touchy topic. During a discussion about which rules to kill, I heard several complaints about endless department meetings. The EVP in attendance responded by limiting all department meetings to one hour. Since then, employees have cited the 60-minute meeting format as a turning point in their department’s culture shift.

One hour was all it took the senior management teams at MacLean-Fogg Company, a $1 billion diversified manufacturer, to come up with more than 100 rules worthy of killing. The company president took one look at the 2 x 2 grid covered in sticky notes and I watched him ceremoniously kill four of the “Easy to kill/high impact” rules: Internet blocking, the capital approval process, the weekly forecasting requirement, and the travel policy.

This leader’s willingness to instantly kill a handful of stupid rules showed employees that he wasn’t afraid to take on complacency. It proved that he heard their concerns loud and clear and was serious about addressing them. When leadership cuts the lip service and puts intentions into action, it demonstrates tangible change.

Even at companies known for their engaging cultures, rule killing can improve business—or even shift business models. In the early days of Zappos, the company focused simply on providing the best online selection of shoes. But after receiving tons of customer feedback, they learned that surprise shipping upgrades and positive customer communication had a tremendous impact on loyalty. So they got rid of approvals for refunds, free shipping and V.I.P. perks so call-center employees had access to the same tools as managers. Nowadays, Zappos’ customer service is as renowned as its product selection.

Whether or not your irritating rules have bottom-line impact, the act of eradicating them empowers the individuals they most affect. And empowerment breeds engagement, not complacency. Kill a Stupid Rule offers a framework and safe environment for people to question the status quo. It’s also an effective first step in transforming your employees’ mindset from trained monkey to engaged participant.